Educational Media Reviews Online

Scouts’ Honor is an important topical documentary about the Boy Scouts of America’s homophobic, discriminatory policy against homosexuals and the efforts of a volunteer campaign to reverse this policy. In 1998, Steve Cozza, a 13 year-old avid Scout and David Rice, an older Scout leader from Petaluma, California start a the Scouting for All petition drive to gain local and national support for this fight. Tom Shepard expertly focuses the story on the heartfelt work of this grassroots group and their committed circle of family and friends, both straight and gay. Sadly, some members of this group also became targets of the Boy Scouts and were asked to leave the Scouts.

Interviewed in Scouts Honor are two former Scouts who took their cases to the Supreme Court. Timothy Curran got kicked out of the Eagle Scouts in 1981 after his activism in a gay youth group was discovered; he lost his case in 1999. In 1990 James Dale lost his registration as an adult leader of the Boy Scouts because he was homosexual. He lost his case in 2000.

Though this highly recommended film will appeal to people of all ages, Scouts Honor should be shown in middle schools and high schools to encourage discussion on gay rights, civil rights, tolerance, and democracy. A useful teaching guide with time-line accompanies the video. In addition to the excellent filmmaking and sound, Tom Shepard expertly incorporates archival footage to provide historical background for the Boy Scouts.

Scouts Honor is the recipient of the Audience Award for Best Documentary, and the Freedom of Expression Award from the Sundance Film Festival, and the winner of the Grand Prize for Nonfiction Film at the USA Film Festival.